NYU Hosts African Diaspora Health Conference
NEW YORK – NYU School of Medicine will host its 6th Annual Conference on the Health of the African Diaspora entitled New York City African Community Based Organizations (CBO) Forum: Transformation through Collaboration on February 19, 2011.
Ethnically diverse African families form one of the fastest growing new arrival groups in New York City. There is a strong need to enhance the capacity of CBOs serving the African immigrant community to acquire resources and technical expertise and to form partnerships to engage effectively in providing service, advocacy and research. This one-day conference will bring together organizations and community leaders in the New York metropolitan area engaged in supporting African immigrants. It will foster partnership building and collaboration strategies among CBOs, and with local and federal organizations, foundations and academic institutions to enhance the service and advocacy these organizations provide on behalf of this community in New York City and the metropolitan area. Over 100 participants are expected to attend the conference. Speakers and invited guests include New York City Commissioner for Immigrant Affairs, Fatima Shama; Imam Souleimane Konate; representatives of the National Institutes of Health Office of Minority Health; NYC Council Member Helen Diane Foster; NYC Council Member Inez E. Dickens; and NYC Council Member Robert Jackson. The conference planning committee consists of members of major community based organizations in New York City serving African immigrants, including African Hope Committee, Inc., African Services Committee, and African Refuge as well as CAMBA, and the Office of the Mayor of the City of New York. Conference objectives are: 1. To explore resources and areas of need to enhance the work of the organizations. The conference is a program of the Center for the Health of the African Diaspora, one of the centers of the Institute for Community Health and Research at NYU School of Medicine. The institute seeks to reduce health inequities in underserved populations by engaging in community-based research, education, and training. NYU School of Medicine has been at the forefront of efforts to address health disparities in the U.S and globally. The school has a National Center of Excellence for Asian Health supported by the National Institutes of Health as well as a Prevention Research Center, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) network of Prevention Research Centers, which brings academic researchers, community members, and public health agencies together to conduct prevention research and promote the wide use of practices proven to promote good health. About NYU Langone Medical Center
2. To explore ways of sharing resources, expertise and information across organizations including best practices.
3. To explore collaborative strategies across organizations for program development and advocacy
4. To explore strategic partnerships with academic institutions such as NYU to enhance service to the community.
5. To explore establishment of a formal network of organizations in NYC serving African communities to achieve the above goals.
6. To establish an ongoing annual meeting/forum for the group to discuss issues of relevance.
NYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class patient-centered integrated academic medical center, is one of the nation’s premier centers for excellence in health care, biomedical research, and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is comprised of three hospitals—Tisch Hospital, a 705-bed acute-care tertiary facility, Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, the first non military rehabilitation hospital in the United States, with 174 beds and extensive outpatient rehabilitation programs, and the 190-bed Hospital for Joint Diseases, one of only five hospitals in the world dedicated to orthopaedics and rheumatology—plus the NYU School of Medicine, one of the nation’s preeminent academic institutions.
